CHAPTER X
WHEREIN ELNORA HAS MORE FINANCIAL TROUBLES, AND MRS. COMSTOCK
AGAIN HEARS THE SONG OF THE LIMBERLOST
The following night Elnora hurried to Sintons'. She threw open
the back door and with anxious eyes searched Margaret's face.
"You got it!" panted Elnora. "You got it! I can
see by your face that you did. Oh, give it to me!"
"Yes, I got it, honey, I got it all right, but don't be so
fast. It had been kept in such a damp place it needed glueing,
it had to have strings, and a key was gone. I knew how much you
wanted it, so I sent Wesley right to town with it. They said they
could fix it good as new, but it should be varnished, and that
it would take several days for the glue to set. You can have it
Saturday."
"You found it where you thought it was? You know it's his?"
"Yes, it was just where I thought, and it's the same violin
I've seen him play hundreds of times. It's all right, only laying
so long it needs fixing."
"Oh Aunt Margaret! Can I ever wait?"
"It does seem a long time, but how could I help it? You couldn't
do anything with it as it was. You see, it had been hidden away
in a garret, and it needed cleaning and drying to make it fit
to play again. You can have it Saturday sure. But Elnora, you've
got to promise me that you will leave it here, or in town, and
not let your mother get a hint of it. I don't know what she'd
do."
"Uncle Wesley can bring it here until Monday. Then I will
take it to school so that I can practise at noon. Oh, I don't
know how to thank you. And there's more than the violin for which
to be thankful. You've given me my father. Last night I saw him
plainly as life."
"Elnora you were dreaming!"
"I know I was dreaming, but I saw him. I saw him so closely
that a tiny white scar at the corner of his eyebrow showed. I
was just reaching out to touch him when he disappeared."
"Who told you there was a scar on his forehead?"
"No one ever did in all my life. I saw it last night as he
went down. And oh, Aunt Margaret! I saw what she did, and I heard
his cries! No matter what she does, I don't believe I ever can
be angry with her again. Her heart is broken, and she can't help
it. Oh, it was terrible, but I am glad I saw it. Now, I will always
understand."
"I don't know what to make of that," said Margaret.
I don't believe in such stuff at all, but you couldn't make it
up, for you didn't know."
"I only know that I played the violin last night, as he played
it, and while I played he came through the woods from the direction
of Carneys'. It was summer and all the flowers were in bloom.
He wore gray trousers and a blue shirt, his head was bare, and
his face was beautiful. I could almost touch him when he sank."
Margaret stood perplexed. "I don't know what to think of
that!" she ejaculated. "I was next to the last person
who saw him before he was drowned. It was late on a June afternoon,
and he was dressed as you describe. He was bareheaded because
he had found a quail's nest before the bird began to brood, and
he gathered the eggs in his hat and left it in a fence corner
to get on his way home; they found it afterward."
"Was he coming from Carneys'?"
"He was on that side of the quagmire. Why he ever skirted
it so close as to get caught is a mystery you will have to dream
out. I never could understand it."
"Was he doing something he didn't want my mother to know?"
"Why?"
"Because if he had been, he might have cut close the swamp
so he couldn't be seen from the garden. You know, the whole path
straight to the pool where he sank can be seen from our back door.
It's firm on our side. The danger is on the north and east. If
he didn't want mother to know, he might have tried to pass on
either of those sides and gone too close. Was he in a hurry?"
"Yes, he was," said Margaret. "He had been away
longer than he expected, and he almost ran when he started home."
"And he'd left his violin somewhere that you knew, and you
went and got it. I'll wager he was going to play, and didn't want
mother to find it out!"
"It wouldn't make any difference to you if you knew every
little thing, so quit thinking about it, and just be glad you
are to have what he loved best of anything." "That's
true. Now I must hurry home. I am dreadfully late."
Elnora sprang up and ran down the road, but when she approached
the cabin she climbed the fence, crossed the open woods pasture
diagonally and entered at the back garden gate. As she often came
that way when she had been looking for cocoons her mother asked
no questions.
Elnora lived by the minute until Saturday, when, contrary to his
usual custom, Wesley went to town in the forenoon, taking her
along to buy some groceries. Wesley drove straight to the music
store, and asked for the violin he had left to be mended.
In its new coat of varnish, with new keys and strings, it seemed
much like any other violin to Sinton, but to Elnora it was the
most beautiful instrument ever made, and a priceless treasure.
She held it in her arms, touched the strings softly and then she
drew the bow across them in whispering measure. She had no time
to think what a remarkably good bow it was for sixteen years'
disuse. The tan leather case might have impressed her as being
in fine condition also, had she been in a state to question anything.
She did remember to ask for the bill and she was gravely presented
with a slip calling for four strings, one key, and a coat of varnish,
total, one dollar fifty. It seemed to Elnora she never could put
the precious instrument in the case and start home. Wesley left
her in the music store where the proprietor showed her all he
could about tuning, and gave her several beginners' sheets of
notes and scales. She carried the violin in her arms as far as
the crossroads at the corner of their land, then reluctantly put
it under the carriage seat.
As soon as her work was done she ran down to Sintons' and began
to play, and on Monday the violin went to school with her. She
made arrangements with the superintendent to leave it in his office
and scarcely took time for her food at noon, she was so eager
to practise. Often one of the girls asked her to stay in town
all night for some lecture or entertainment. She could take the
violin with her, practise, and secure help. Her skill was so great
that the leader of the orchestra offered to give her lessons if
she would play to pay for them, so her progress was rapid in technical
work. But from the first day the instrument became hers, with
perfect faith that she could play as her father did, she spent
half her practice time in imitating the sounds of all outdoors
and improvising the songs her happy heart sang in those days.
So the first year went, and the second and third were a repetition;
but the fourth was different, for that was the close of the course,
ending with graduation and all its attendant ceremonies and expenses.
To Elnora these appeared mountain high. She had hoarded every
cent, thinking twice before she parted with a penny, but teaching
natural history in the grades had taken time from her studies
in school which must be made up outside. She was a conscientious
student, ranking first in most of her classes, and standing high
in all branches. Her interest in her violin had grown with the
years. She went to school early and practised half an hour in
the little room adjoining the stage, while the orchestra gathered.
She put in a full hour at noon, and remained another half hour
at night. She carried the violin to Sintons' on Saturday and practised
all the time she could there, while Margaret watched the road
to see that Mrs. Comstock was not coming. She had become so skilful
that it was a delight to hear her play music of any composer,
but when she played her own, that was joy inexpressible, for then
the wind blew, the water rippled, the Limberlost sang her songs
of sunshine, shadow, black storm, and white night.
Since her dream Elnora had regarded her mother with peculiar tenderness.
The girl realized, in a measure, what had happened. She avoided
anything that possibly could stir bitter memories or draw deeper
a line on the hard, white face. This cost many sacrifices, much
work, and sometimes delayed progress, but the horror of that awful
dream remained with Elnora. She worked her way cheerfully, doing
all she could to interest her mother in things that happened in
school, in the city, and by carrying books that were entertaining
from the public library.
Three years had changed Elnora from the girl of sixteen to the
very verge of womanhood. She had grown tall, round, and her face
had the loveliness of perfect complexion, beautiful eyes and hair
and an added touch from within that might have been called comprehension.
It was a compound of self-reliance, hard knocks, heart hunger,
unceasing work, and generosity. There was no form of suffering
with which the girl could not sympathize, no work she was afraid
to attempt, no subject she had investigated she did not understand.
These things combined to produce a breadth and depth of character
altogether unusual. She was so absorbed in her classes and her
music that she had not been able to gather many specimens. When
she realized this and hunted assiduously, she soon found that
changing natural conditions had affected such work. Men all around
were clearing available land. The trees fell wherever corn would
grow. The swamp was broken by several gravel roads, dotted in
places around the edge with little frame houses, and the machinery
of oil wells; one especially low place around the region of Freckles's
room was nearly all that remained of the original. Wherever the
trees fell the moisture dried, the creeks ceased to flow, the
river ran low, and at times the bed was dry. With unbroken sweep
the winds of the west came, gathering force with every mile and
howled and raved; threatening to tear the shingles from the roof,
blowing the surface from the soil in clouds of fine dust and rapidly
changing everything. From coming in with two or three dozen rare
moths in a day, in three years' time Elnora had grown to be delighted
with finding two or three. Big pursy caterpillars could not be
picked from their favourite bushes, when there were no bushes.
Dragonflies would not hover over dry places, and butterflies became
scarce in proportion to the flowers, while no land yields over
three crops of Indian relics.
All the time the expense of books, clothing and incidentals had
continued. Elnora added to her bank account whenever she could,
and drew out when she was compelled, but she omitted the important
feature of calling for a balance. So, one early spring morning
in the last quarter of the fourth year, she almost fainted when
she learned that her funds were gone. Commencement with its extra
expense was coming, she had no money, and very few cocoons to
open in June, which would be too late. She had one collection
for the Bird Woman complete to a pair of Imperialis moths, and
that was her only asset. On the day she added these big Yellow
Emperors she had been promised a check for three hundred dollars,
but she would not get it until these specimens were secured. She
remembered that she never had found an Emperor before June.
Moreover, that sum was for her first year in college. Then she
would be of age, and she meant to sell enough of her share of
her father's land to finish. She knew her mother would oppose
her bitterly in that, for Mrs. Comstock had clung to every acre
and tree that belonged to her husband. Her land was almost complete
forest where her neighbours owned cleared farms, dotted with wells
that every hour sucked oil from beneath her holdings, but she
was too absorbed in the grief she nursed to know or care. The
Brushwood road and the redredging of the big Limberlost ditch
had been more than she could pay from her income, and she had
trembled before the wicket as she asked the banker if she had
funds to pay it, and wondered why he laughed when he assured her
she had. For Mrs. Comstock had spent no time on compounding interest,
and never added the sums she had been depositing through nearly
twenty years. Now she thought her funds were almost gone, and
every day she worried over expenses. She could see no reason in
going through the forms of graduation when pupils had all in their
heads that was required to graduate. Elnora knew she had to have
her diploma in order to enter the college she wanted to attend,
but she did not dare utter the word, until high school was finished,
for, instead of softening as she hoped her mother had begun to
do, she seemed to remain very much the same.
When the girl reached the swamp she sat on a log and thought over
the expense she was compelled to meet. Every member of her particular
set was having a large photograph taken to exchange with the others.
Elnora loved these girls and boys, and to say she could not have
their pictures to keep was more than she could endure. Each one
would give to all the others a handsome graduation present. She
knew they would prepare gifts for her whether she could make a
present in return or not. Then it was the custom for each graduating
class to give a great entertainment and use the funds to present
the school with a statue for the entrance hall. Elnora had been
cast for and was practising a part in that performance. She was
expected to furnish her dress and personal necessities. She had
been told that she must have a green gauze dress, and where was
it to come from?
Every girl of the class would have three beautiful new frocks
for Commencement: one for the baccalaureate sermon, another, which
could be plain, for graduation exercises, and a handsome one for
the banquet and ball. Elnora faced the past three years and wondered
how she could have spent so much money and not kept account of
it. She did not realize where it had gone. She did not know what
she could do now. She thought over the photographs, and at last
settled that question to her satisfaction. She studied longer
over the gifts, ten handsome ones there must be, and at last decided
she could arrange for them. The green dress came first. The lights
would be dim in the scene, and the setting deep woods. She could
manage that. She simply could not have three dresses. She would
have to get a very simple one for the sermon and do the best she
could for graduation. Whatever she got for that must be made with
a guimpe that could be taken out to make it a little more festive
for the ball. But where could she get even two pretty dresses?
The only hope she could see was to break into the collection of
the man from India, sell some moths, and try to replace them in
June. But in her soul she knew that never would do. No June ever
brought just the things she hoped it would. If she spent the college
money she knew she could not replace it. If she did not, the only
way was to secure a room in the grades and teach a year. Her work
there had been so appreciated that Elnora felt with the recommendation
she knew she could get from the superintendent and teachers she
could secure a position. She was sure she could pass the examinations
easily. She had once gone on Saturday, taken them and secured
a license for a year before she left the Brushwood school.
She wanted to start to college when the other girls were going.
If she could make the first year alone, she could manage the remainder.
But make that first year herself, she must. Instead of selling
any of her collection, she must hunt as she never before had hunted
and find a Yellow Emperor. She had to have it, that was all. Also,
she had to have those dresses. She thought of Wesley and dismissed
it. She thought of the Bird Woman, and knew she could not tell
her. She thought of every way in which she ever had hoped to earn
money and realized that with the play, committee meetings, practising,
and final examinations she scarcely had time to live, much less
to do more than the work required for her pictures and gifts.
Again Elnora was in trouble, and this time it seemed the worst
of all.
It was dark when she arose and went home.
"Mother," she said, "I have a piece of news that
is decidedly not cheerful."
"Then keep it to yourself!" said Mrs. Comstock. "I
think I have enough to bear without a great girl like you piling
trouble on me."
"My money is all gone!" said Elnora.
"Well, did you think it would last forever? It's been a marvel
to me that it's held out as well as it has, the way you've dressed
and gone."
"I don't think I've spent any that I was not compelled to,"
said Elnora. "I've dressed on just as little as I possibly
could to keep going. I am heartsick. I thought I had over fifty
dollars to put me through Commencement, but they tell me it is
all gone."
"Fifty dollars! To put you through Commencement! What on
earth are you proposing to do?"
"The same as the rest of them, in the very cheapest way possible."
"And what might that be?"
Elnora omitted the photographs, the gifts and the play. She told
only of the sermon, graduation exercises, and the ball.
"Well, I wouldn't trouble myself over that," sniffed
Mrs. Comstock. "If you want to go to a sermon, put on the
dress you always use for meeting. If you need white for the exercises
wear the new dress you got last spring. As for the ball, the best
thing for you to do is to stay a mile away from such folly. In
my opinion you'd best bring home your books, and quit right now.
You can't be fixed like the rest of them, don't be so foolish
as to run into it. Just stay here and let these last few days
go. You can't learn enough more to be of any account."
"But, mother," gasped Elnora. "You don't understand!"
"Oh, yes, I do!" said Mrs. Comstock. "I understand
perfectly. So long as the money lasted, you held up your head,
and went sailing without even explaining how you got it from the
stuff you gathered. Goodness knows I couldn't see. But now it's
gone, you come whining to me. What have I got? Have you forgot
that the ditch and the road completely strapped me? I haven't
any money. There's nothing for you to do but get out of it."
"I can't!" said Elnora desperately. "I've gone
on too long. It would make a break in everything. They wouldn't
let me have my diploma!"
"What's the difference? You've got the stuff in your head.
I wouldn't give a rap for a scrap of paper. That don't mean anything!"
"But I've worked four years for it, and I can't enter-- I
ought to have it to help me get a school, when I want to teach.
If I don't have my grades to show, people will think I quit because
I couldn't pass my examinations. I must have my diploma!"
"Then get it!" said Mrs. Comstock.
"The only way is to graduate with the others."
"Well, graduate if you are bound to!"
"But I can't, unless I have things enough like the class,
that I don't look as I did that first day."
"Well, please remember I didn't get you into this, and I
can't get you out. You are set on having your own way. Go on,
and have it, and see how you like it!"
Elnora went upstairs and did not come down again that night, which
her mother called pouting.
"I've thought all night," said the girl at breakfast,
"and I can't see any way but to borrow the money of Uncle
Wesley and pay it back from some that the Bird Woman will owe
me, when I get one more specimen. But that means that I can't
go to--that I will have to teach this winter, if I can get a city
grade or a country school."
"Just you dare go dinging after Wesley Sinton for money,"
cried Mrs. Comstock. "You won't do any such a thing!"
"I can't see any other way. I've got to have the money!"
"Quit, I tell you!"
"I can't quit!--I've gone too far!"
"Well then, let me get your clothes, and you can pay me back."
"But you said you had no money!"
"Maybe I can borrow some at the bank. Then you can return
it when the Bird Woman pays you."
"All right," said Elnora. "I don't need expensive
things. Just some kind of a pretty cheap white dress for the sermon,
and a white one a little better than I had last summer, for Commencement
and the ball. I can use the white gloves and shoes I got myself
for last year, and you can get my dress made at the same place
you did that one. They have my measurements, and do perfect work.
Don't get expensive things. It will be warm so I can go bareheaded."
Then she started to school, but was so tired and discouraged she
scarcely could walk. Four years' plans going in one day! For she
felt that if she did not start to college that fall she never
would. Instead of feeling relieved at her mother's offer, she
was almost too ill to go on. For the thousandth time she groaned:
"Oh, why didn't I keep account of my money?"
After that the days passed so swiftly she scarcely had time to
think, but several trips her mother made to town, and the assurance
that everything was all right, satisfied Elnora. She worked very
hard to pass good final examinations and perfect herself for the
play. For two days she had remained in town with the Bird Woman
in order to spend more time practising and at her work.
Often Margaret had asked about her dresses for graduation, and
Elnora had replied that they were with a woman in the city who
had made her a white dress for last year's Commencement when she
was a junior usher, and they would be all right. So Margaret,
Wesley, and Billy concerned themselves over what they would give
her for a present. Margaret suggested a beautiful dress. Wesley
said that would look to every one as if she needed dresses. The
thing was to get a handsome gift like all the others would have.
Billy wanted to present her a five-dollar gold piece to buy music
for her violin. He was positive Elnora would like that best of
anything.
It was toward the close of the term when they drove to town one
evening to try to settle this important question. They knew Mrs.
Comstock had been alone several days, so they asked her to accompany
them. She had been more lonely than she would admit, filled with
unusual unrest besides, and so she was glad to go. But before
they had driven a mile Billy had told that they were going to
buy Elnora a graduation present, and Mrs. Comstock devoutly wished
that she had remained at home. She was prepared when Billy asked:
"Aunt Kate, what are you going to give Elnora when she graduates?"
"Plenty to eat, a good bed to sleep in, and do all the work
while she trollops," answered Mrs. Comstock dryly.
Billy reflected. "I guess all of them have that," he
said. "I mean a present you buy at the store, like Christmas?"
"It is only rich folks who buy presents at stores,"
replied Mrs.Comstock. "I can't afford it."
"Well, we ain't rich," he said, "but we are going
to buy Elnora something as fine as the rest of them have if we
sell a corner of the farm. Uncle Wesley said so."
"A fool and his land are soon parted," said Mrs. Comstock
tersely. Wesley and Billy laughed, but Margaret did not enjoy
the remark.
While they were searching the stores for something on which all
of them could decide, and Margaret was holding Billy to keep him
from saying anything before Mrs. Comstock about the music on which
he was determined, Mr. Brownlee met Wesley and stopped to shake
hands.
"I see your boy came out finely," he said.
"I don't allow any boy anywhere to be finer than Billy,"
said Wesley.
"I guess you don't allow any girl to surpass Elnora,"
said Mr. Brownlee. "She comes home with Ellen often, and
my wife and I love her. Ellen says she is great in her part to-night.
Best thing in the whole play! Of course, you are in to see it!
If you haven't reserved seats, you'd better start pretty soon,
for the high school auditorium only seats a thousand. It's always
jammed at these home- talent plays. All of us want to see how
our children perform."
"Why yes, of course," said the bewildered Wesley. Then
he hurried to Margaret. "Say," he said, "there
is going to be a play at the high school to-night; and Elnora
is in it. Why hasn't she told us?"
"I don't know," said Margaret, "but I'm going."
"So am I," said Billy.
"Me too!" said Wesley, "unless you think for some
reason she doesn't want us. Looks like she would have told us
if she had. I'm going to ask her mother."
"Yes, that's what's she's been staying in town for,"
said Mrs. Comstock. "It's some sort of a swindle to raise
money for her class to buy some silly thing to stick up in the
school house hall to remember them by. I don't know whether it's
now or next week, but there's something of the kind to be done."
"Well, it's to-night," said Wesley, "and we are
going. It's my treat, and we've got to hurry or we won't get in.
There are reserved seats, and we have none, so it's the gallery
for us, but I don't care so I get to take one good peep at Elnora."
"S'pose she plays?" whispered Margaret in his ear.
"Aw, tush! She couldn't!" said Wesley.
"Well, she's been doing it three years in the orchestra,
and working like a slave at it."
"Oh, well that's different. She's in the play to-night. Brownlee
told me so. Come on, quick! We'll drive and hitch closest place
we can find to the building."
Margaret went in the excitement of the moment, but she was troubled.
When they reached the building Wesley tied the team to a railing
and Billy sprang out to help Margaret. Mrs. Comstock sat still.
"Come on, Kate," said Wesley, reaching his hand.
"I'm not going anywhere," said Mrs. Comstock, settling
comfortably back against the cushions.
All of them begged and pleaded, but it was no use. Not an inch
would Mrs. Comstock budge. The night was warm and the carriage
comfortable, the horses were securely hitched. She did not care
to see what idiotic thing a pack of school children were doing,
she would wait until the Sintons returned. Wesley told her it
might be two hours, and she said she did not care if it were four,
so they left her.
"Did you ever see such----?"
"Cookies!" cried Billy.
"Such blamed stubbornness in all your life?" demanded
Wesley. "Won't come to see as fine a girl as Elnora in a
stage performance. Why, I wouldn't miss it for fifty dollars!
"I think it's a blessing she didn't," said Margaret
placidly. "I begged unusually hard so she wouldn't. I'm scared
of my life for fear Elnora will play."
They found seats near the door where they could see fairly well.
Billy stood at the back of the hall and had a good view. By and
by, a great volume of sound welled from the orchestra, but Elnora
was not playing.
"Told you so!" said Sinton. "Got a notion to go
out and see if Kate won't come now. She can take my seat, and
I'll stand with Billy."
"You sit still!" said Margaret emphatically. "This
is not over yet."
So Wesley remained in his seat. The play opened and progressed
very much as all high school plays have gone for the past fifty
years. But Elnora did not appear in any of the scenes.
Out in the warm summer night a sour, grim woman nursed an aching
heart and tried to justify herself. The effort irritated her intensely.
She felt that she could not afford the things that were being
done. The old fear of losing the land that she and Robert Comstock
had purchased and started clearing was strong upon her. She was
thinking of him, how she needed him, when the orchestra music
poured from the open windows near her. Mrs. Comstock endured it
as long as she could, and then slipped from the carriage and fled
down the street.
She did not know how far she went or how long she stayed, but
everything was still, save an occasional raised voice when she
wandered back. She stood looking at the building. Slowly she entered
the wide gates and followed up the walk. Elnora had been coming
here for almost four years. When Mrs. Comstock reached the door
she looked inside. The wide hall was lighted with electricity,
and the statuary and the decorations of the walls did not seem
like pieces of foolishness. The marble appeared pure, white, and
the big pictures most interesting. She walked the length of the
hall and slowly read the titles of the statues and the names of
the pupils who had donated them. She speculated on where the piece
Elnora's class would buy could be placed to advantage.
Then she wondered if they were having a large enough audience
to buy marble. She liked it better than the bronze, but it looked
as if it cost more. How white the broad stairway was! Elnora had
been climbing those stairs for years and never told her they were
marble. Of course, she thought they were wood. Probably the upper
hall was even grander than this. She went over to the fountain,
took a drink, climbed to the first landing and looked around her,
and then without thought to the second. There she came opposite
the wide-open doors and the entrance to the auditorium packed
with people and a crowd standing outside. When they noticed a
tall woman with white face and hair and black dress, one by one
they stepped a little aside, so that Mrs. Comstock could see the
stage. It was covered with curtains, and no one was doing anything.
Just as she turned to go a sound so faint that every one leaned
forward and listened, drifted down the auditorium. It was difficult
to tell just what it was; after one instant half the audience
looked toward the windows, for it seemed only a breath of wind
rustling freshly opened leaves; merely a hint of stirring air.
Then the curtains were swept aside swiftly. The stage had been
transformed into a lovely little corner of creation, where trees
and flowers grew and moss carpeted the earth. A soft wind blew
and it was the gray of dawn. Suddenly a robin began to sing, then
a song sparrow joined him, and then several orioles began talking
at once. The light grew stronger, the dew drops trembled, flower
perfume began to creep out to the audience; the air moved the
branches gently and a rooster crowed. Then all the scene was shaken
with a babel of bird notes in which you could hear a cardinal
whistling, and a blue finch piping. Back somewhere among the high
branches a dove cooed and then a horse neighed shrilly. That set
a blackbird crying, "T'check," and a whole flock answered
it. The crows began to caw and a lamb bleated. Then the grosbeaks,
chats, and vireos had something to say, and the sun rose higher,
the light grew stronger and the breeze rustled the treetops loudly;
a cow bawled and the whole barnyard answered. The guineas were
clucking, the turkey gobbler strutting, the hens calling, the
chickens cheeping, the light streamed down straight overhead and
the bees began to hum. The air stirred strongly, and away in an
unseen field a reaper clacked and rattled through ripening wheat
while the driver whistled. An uneasy mare whickered to her colt,
the colt answered, and the light began to decline. Miles away
a rooster crowed for twilight, and dusk was coming down. Then
a catbird and a brown thrush sang against a grosbeak and a hermit
thrush. The air was tremulous with heavenly notes, the lights
went out in the hall, dusk swept across the stage, a cricket sang
and a katydid answered, and a wood pewee wrung the heart with
its lonesome cry. Then a night hawk screamed, a whip- poor-will
complained, a belated killdeer swept the sky, and the night wind
sang a louder song. A little screech owl tuned up in the distance,
a barn owl replied, and a great horned owl drowned both their
voices. The moon shone and the scene was warm with mellow light.
The bird voices died and soft exquisite melody began to swell
and roll. In the centre of the stage, piece by piece the grasses,
mosses and leaves dropped from an embankment, the foliage softly
blew away, while plainer and plainer came the outlines of a lovely
girl figure draped in soft clinging green. In her shower of bright
hair a few green leaves and white blossoms clung, and they fell
over her robe down to her feet. Her white throat and arms were
bare, she leaned forward a little and swayed with the melody,
her eyes fast on the clouds above her, her lips parted, a pink
tinge of exercise in her cheeks as she drew her bow. She played
as only a peculiar chain of circumstances puts it in the power
of a very few to play. All nature had grown still, the violin
sobbed, sang, danced and quavered on alone, no voice in particular;
the soul of the melody of all nature combined in one great outpouring.
At the doorway, a white-faced woman endured it as long as she
could and then fell senseless. The men nearest carried her down
the hall to the fountain, revived her, and then placed her in
the carriage to which she directed them. The girl played on and
never knew. When she finished, the uproar of applause sounded
a block down the street, but the half-senseless woman scarcely
realized what it meant. Then the girl came to the front of the
stage, bowed, and lifting the violin she played her conception
of an invitation to dance. Every living soul within sound of her
notes strained their nerves to sit still and let only their hearts
dance with her. When that began the woman ran toward the country.
She never stopped until the carriage overtook her half-way to
her cabin. She said she had grown tired of sitting, and walked
on ahead. That night she asked Billy to remain with her and sleep
on Elnora's bed. Then she pitched headlong upon her own, and suffered
agony of soul such as she never before had known. The swamp had
sent back the soul of her loved dead and put it into the body
of the daughter she resented, and it was almost more than she
could endure and live.